


baby you light up my world like nobody else

by artificialmac, astrodrag



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: F/F, Office AU, b leaves v cute post-its with love notes on them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24158704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artificialmac/pseuds/artificialmac, https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrodrag/pseuds/astrodrag
Summary: Alternate title: Post Noteably.Vanessa receives a series of cute post-it notes left at her desk from a secret admirer.
Relationships: Brooke Lynn Hytes/Vanessa Vanjie Mateo
Comments: 30
Kudos: 55





	baby you light up my world like nobody else

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starrsbby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrsbby/gifts).



> I started this story 10 months ago, and decided to finally finish it for Rachel's birthday. Then I pulled Mac in to help write the end, and this is the result. Hope you enjoy <3

Vanessa was _not_ having a good morning, despite all the cheerful greetings she received as she hurriedly walked down the hall towards her cubicle. Traffic had been hell that morning, she had spilled her coffee while running up the front steps of the building, she was about to be late, and now, as she speed-walked down the hallway, she realized she had left her lunch sitting on her kitchen counter. 

No, forget having a bad day - today was going to be _hell._ She could feel it.

Vanessa slid into her seat in her cubicle right as the large clock on the wall struck 9 am. She let out a soft sigh of relief, allowing herself to breathe a little easier now that she knew she had been right on time. She tucked her purse just under her desk and turned on her computer, slowly spinning her chair around as she waited for the machine to boot up.

After doing three full rotations, Vanessa paused. Secured to the bulletin board just above her monitor was a bright pink post-it note that she most certainly did not remember leaving there the day before. She leaned forwards, trying to read the small handwriting on the note, and her heart nearly skipped a beat over the words scrawled across it.

_You asked to borrow a pencil and stole my heart in the process._

“What the fuck?” Vanessa mumbled under her breath, her nose scrunching up in confusion as she carefully removed the note from the bulletin board. She stood up, hands pushing against the desk in an attempt to give herself a slight boost up as she craned her neck to see if Silky and A’keria were in their cubicles a couple rows down from her. For a split second, she debated climbing on top of her chair too look, frustrated that she was too short to see over the cubicles.

Somehow, Silky and A’keria had practically won the cubicle lottery, winding up in adjacent spaces, while Vanessa was on the opposite side of the damn room. She supposed it was probably for the best that her friends weren’t nearby, knowing she would get absolutely nothing done if they were within reasonable distance to have a conversation without shouting. But on days like today when she had to weave in between the aisles and people making laps around the office, she hated being so far from her friends, _especially_ when it meant having to sneak past the office soccer mom, Nancy.

Nancy was a perfectly fine human being. A bit nit-picky and sometimes unpleasant to be around, sure, but she wasn’t _awful_. She just had a tendency to talk. A lot. And coming from someone as chatty as Vanessa, that was saying something. Once Nancy pulled you in, she would talk your ear off for as long as possible, sometimes even follow you around to keep a conversation going. She was almost like a villain from a kid’s show; not actually harmful to anyone, but annoying as hell at times. 

Vanessa knew she needed to be particularly careful to sneak past Nancy this morning, having overheard a couple of her co-workers gossiping about how Nancy’s son had fucked up at his soccer game the previous night. Somehow, the poor kid had gotten confused about which team he was on, and ended up kicking the ball into his own team’s net. After some heated arguing about penalties and potentially benching her son, it had been decided that the other team would get a point and Nancy’s son could continue to play, though none of his teammates entrusted him with the ball for the rest of the game. Nancy, needless to say, was furious, and would no doubt be looking for someone to vent to that morning.

Unfortunately, her bad luck that morning had not turned around, and right as she turned the corner to sneak past Nancy’s row of cubicles, Vanessa ran right into the soccer mom herself. 

_Shit._

“Heyyyy Nancy,” Vanessa all but groaned, her voice going up in pitch as she spoke. Before she had a chance to say another word, Nancy launched into her tirade, and Vanessa knew she was going to be stuck there for a _while._

* * *

When she walked up the row her friends were seated in, she wasn’t the least bit surprised to see both of their chairs pushed back into the aisle, the pair chattering away as they sipped at the free coffee they had gotten from the break room.

“Which one of you did it?” Vanessa interrupted, her gaze flicking back and forth between her two friends. She kept scanning their faces, hoping one of them would give something away about who had left the note, but they both seemed genuinely confused.

“Girl, what the _fuck_ are you on about?” A’keria replied, her eyebrow quirking upwards in confusion. Silky’s face scrunched up in confusion, her entire body recoiling as she mumbled a sarcastic _good morning to you too_ under her breath, her confusion quickly turning to concern when she almost spilled coffee all over herself.

Vanessa knew immediately that neither of them would know anything. That, or they had magically become _far_ better actors than she had ever known them to be.

Letting out a dramatic sigh, Vanjie quickly glanced around, making sure their boss wasn’t nearby, then hopped up to sit on Silky’s desk. She handed A’keria the post-it note, then immediately launched into her dramatic retelling of that morning’s events.

* * *

For the rest of the afternoon, Vanessa could hardly focus. Her mind kept drifting, her eyes darting over to stare at the fluorescent post-it note she had meticulously hung back up on her cubicle after talking to Silky and A’keria. 

They had spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out who the hell had left the note, both of them asking question after question to try to jog Vanessa’s memory after she confessed to not remembering who the _hell_ she had ever borrowed a pencil from. At one point, they had even had to shove Vanessa under Silky’s desk to hide as their boss did a walk through, pausing to chat to the two women for a brief moment before continuing on his way.

Ultimately, they made no progress on finding out the mysterious sender of the post-it note, but that didn’t stop Vanessa from continuing to think about it throughout the day. 

By the time the end of the day rolled around, Vanessa wasn’t even sure if the note had been serious or if it was just some lame prank. She _hoped_ it wasn’t a prank, but as she packed up to head home for the day, she really couldn’t be certain. 

No one at work had ever exhibited any kind of romantic interest in her. Most of her co-workers thought she was loud or annoying for one reason or another, so it almost felt too good to be true to think that anyone in the office not only liked her, but _liked_ her.

Throwing her bag over her shoulder, Vanessa headed out the moment the clock hit 5:00 on the dot, though her mind continued to drift back to the post-it note for the rest of the night.

* * *

When Vanessa walked into the office the next morning, she was shocked to see a second note pinned directly beside the first one. This one was neon orange, fine handwriting scrawling out another romantic message.

_We talked at the water cooler and I fell even harder._

Vanessa had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn’t imagining the note, leaning over her desk to make sure she was reading it right. Her heart skipped a beat as she re-read the note once, twice, three times before the disbelief finally subsided. 

Immediately, Vanessa began craning her head in every direction possible, desperately trying to see if there was _anyone_ nearby who could have left the note at her desk, or anyone who may have seen the anonymous sender. But unfortunately, her whole row of cubicles was empty, none of the occupants having arrived yet, and she couldn’t see _anyone_ close enough to have left the note.

With a defeated sigh, she slumped into her chair and did her best to focus on her work for the day, despite the bright pieces of paper practically begging for her attention.

* * *

Over the next week, Vanessa came in each morning to find a new post-it note stuck to her cubicle, the row of neon papers gradually growing. Each note said something different, but equally as cheesy. 

_Your smile lights up the entire room._

_Hearing your laugh across the office makes me smile._

_You bumped into me coming out of the elevator and left me speechless._

But no matter how many little hints the post-its gave her, Vanessa _could not_ figure out who the hell was leaving them for her. They were all so _vague_ ; she bumped into people in the elevator on an almost daily basis, and was _known_ for chatting to anyone and everyone at the water cooler.

By the following Monday though, Vanessa had a _plan_ and was excited it put it into action.

After having spent damn near the entire weekend rambling to A’keria and Silky about the post-its, A’keria finally put her foot down late Sunday evening and suggested Vanessa go into work early the next morning to catch the person in the act. A long pause had passed, before Vanessa abruptly said goodnight and hung up on her friends to sleep early so she could be the first person in the office the next morning.

But now that she was actually in the office before everyone else? Part of her regretted the idea.

It was eerily quiet in the office, the room still dim from only half the lights being on. She could hear her own heart pounding in her chest, nerves settling in as the realization finally hit her that she would get the chance to confront whoever had left the notes for her. Despite being so early for work, she still found herself darting to her desk like she did _every_ morning, collapsing into her chair with a dramatic sigh. She logged into her computer, figuring she might as well work, just on the off-chance the mysterious sender didn’t stop by after all.

Within minutes she was enveloped in her work, typing away frantically as she waited for someone, _anyone_ to stop by her desk.

* * *

Vanessa almost missed her. 

She faintly heard someone gasp, then the sound of heels rapidly tapping against the floor as the person retreated from her row of cubicles, but they couldn’t retreat fast enough. Vanessa hopped up from her office chair, scrambling to climb onto her desk in order to see over her cubicle, and that was when she saw her. Long blonde hair, blue pantsuit - even from the back, Vanessa _immediately_ recognized the woman. _Brooke_.

Instantly, it all clicked. Brooke worked in HR, meaning _everyone_ knew her, but she floated under the radar most of the time. Brooke spoke with people when they were in trouble or whenever they needed to fill out extra paperwork for one reason or another, but Vanessa was one of the few people who regularly chatted with Brooke whenever they ran into each other around the office.

Panic overtaking her, Vanessa grabbed the small stuffed giraffe she had sitting on her desk and threw it at Brooke, hands immediately flying up to cover her mouth as her eyes widened in shock over what she had just done. The giraffe hit Brooke square in the shoulder, causing her to let out a screech and throw her arms up, and that was when Vanessa saw it. Another bright pink post-it note, right there in Brooke’s hand.

“It was _you_ !” Vanessa called out surprised, her eyes still wide as she watched Brooke quickly turn around, face bright red. Vanessa couldn’t help but notice how cute she looked - confused, flustered, and maybe even a tad bit embarrassed, but still cute. She watched as Brooke opened and closed her mouth a couple times, clearly speechless, so Vanessa took the opportunity to hop down from her desk and dart over to stand in front of her. “ _You’re_ the one who left all those notes?”

“No?” Brooke said, unconvincingly. 

Vanessa just smiled softly in response and reached out slowly to take the note from Brooke’s frozen hands.

_This week has been packed with meetings but I always have room in my schedule for you._

“I hope you’re not disappointed,” Brooke said, looking down at her feet nervously. 

Vanessa shook her head. “I’ll only be disappointed if you don’t ask me out after this.”

Brooke smiled softly before speaking again,“Can I borrow a pencil?” 

Vanessa hesitated, the confusion clear on her face, before she went back over to her desk and grabbed a pen, handing it over to Brooke.

Brooke turned to face the nearest wall, flipped the note over, and scribbled a short message before handing it over to Vanessa.

_Do you wanna go on a date sometime?_

**Author's Note:**

> The "dumbass lesbians" line was the only way mac would agree to let me list her as a co-author despite her writing basically the whole ending.


End file.
